[SOLVED] Experiencing performance issues

AnkushRoy · 2024-05-30 18:43:09

I've been using Arch for a while now, but recently, I've been experiencing significant performance issues. Previously, I used a Debian-based distro, which ran smoothly. Here's a brief description of my problem:

When I boot into Arch with i3wm, sometimes everything runs much slower than usual. I have a CPU module in my Polybar that detects CPU usage every second, and during these times, it shows 100% CPU usage. I have tried various troubleshooting steps, including reading the Arch Wiki and attempting to solve it myself. While I managed to improve the situation somewhat by identifying and killing unnecessary processes from the Plasma environment I used earlier, I haven't been able to resolve the issue completely.

After a reboot or two, the problem temporarily goes away, and everything works fine until it doesn't. Sometimes, the 100% CPU usage issue reappears but is temporary and disappears on its own. However, the aforementioned issue persists until I reboot; logging out and back in doesn't fix it.

According to the Arch Wiki (https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Improv … our_system), this might be related to HDD speeds, suggesting that speeds around 40 MB/s might be acceptable. Here are my HDD speed results:

``` bash
sudo hdparm -t /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
Timing buffered disk reads: 238 MB in 3.02 seconds = 78.76 MB/sec

```

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Additionally, if there are no issues with completely removing Plasma, please let me know. I intend to keep SDDM, breeze gtk theme, and a few others but would like to get rid of Plasma entirely.

Thank you!

Last edited by AnkushRoy (2024-06-21 13:33:08)

seth · 2024-05-30 21:43:15

I have a CPU module in my Polybar that detects CPU usage every second, and during these times, it shows 100% CPU usage

These things are exclusively useful for screenshots on r/unixporn - run tom and check what process hogs the CPU

unnecessary processes from the Plasma environment

Random bet: baloo.

AnkushRoy · 2024-05-31 05:36:37

Thank you very much for your reply, currently I am unable to recreate the issue, if I diagnose something I'll let you know here. And baloo is disabled.

AnkushRoy · 2024-06-01 05:23:39

The issue reappeared today and yesterday night. Both times, my system was running extremely slow, affecting all applications. I had htop running during these slowdowns. Although htop itself was also slower than usual, I did not see any abnormal CPU usage from any applications. Despite this, the Polybar module indicated 100% CPU usage.

I disabled Polybar entirely yesterday, but the issue occurred again today with the system being equally slow. Even though htop was running (albeit very slowly), I still couldn't identify any process using excessive CPU.

I will edit this post later to include a screenshot of htop.
What steps should I take next to diagnose and resolve this issue?

link to image: https://i.imgur.com/g3IDhLx

Last edited by AnkushRoy (2024-06-01 10:04:43)

seth · 2024-06-01 06:20:46

Please replace the screenshot w/ a link to the image - the board has a 250x250px max rule.

Compare the performance of

time echo "scale=5000; a(1)*4" | bc -l

when the system is slow and fast - if it's about the same, the CPU isn't the bottleneck - RAM also doesn't look like it's the issue (if the screenshot illustrates a slow state) so you'd look at maybe "iotop" and maybe elaborate on "everything runs much slower than usual" - do you happen to run a compositor (picom) next to i3 and does the situation improve if you kill that?

AnkushRoy · 2024-06-01 10:16:04

Ok I will run that command when the system is slow again, the output of

 time echo "scale=5000; a(1)*4" | bc -l

now is this:

real    0m34.515s
user    0m34.253s
sys     0m0.018s

the image link is this: https://i.imgur.com/g3IDhLx

I do run a compositor picom with very sane and light on system configs, with no transparency or blurring. Previously I tried running my computer by disabling it, but noticed no significant increase in performance.

ok I'll also look into iotop when it is slow, as of now the speed is fluctuating between 0-128kbps

by running slow I mean: Every command runs slowly, like `time tree` takes 20s when slow and 1s when good. Opening a terminal takes around 10s or more. Neovim also works with like 1 frames every 2 seconds, vim with no config takes a significant time to load and is impossible to work with that

Last edited by AnkushRoy (2024-06-01 10:19:51)

seth · 2024-06-01 11:50:36

with very sane and light on system configs

The idea would be more that of a vsync issue…

is impossible to work with that

Do you mean "because opening things is so slow" or "vim continues to act slow after it started"?
You might be stuck in a lower CPU frequency, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/CPU_frequency_scaling

cpupower frequency-info

Every other indication so far would sound more like disk IO (notably "time tree")

yataro · 2024-06-01 19:08:36

I can suggest you to use powertop to check the interrupts. I had a similar problem with my HP laptop which had the same random problem with constant 100% CPU load. I managed to fix it by blacklisting some module (can't remember exactly which one).

AnkushRoy · 2024-06-05 05:50:29

Today again after a long time I experienced the slowness.

seth wrote:

Do you mean "because opening things is so slow" or "vim continues to act slow after it started"?

Yes, vim continues to work slow after it started it also takes a while to loadup vim.

Anyways the output of

 time echo "scale=5000; a(1)*4" | bc -l

Was:

 
real 1m43.322s
user 1m42.926s
sys  0m0.073s

Edit: The output of `cpupower frequency-info`
is:

analyzing CPU 0:
  driver: acpi-cpufreq
  CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 0
  CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 0
  maximum transition latency: 10.0 us
  hardware limits: 1.20 GHz - 2.10 GHz
  available frequency steps:  2.10 GHz, 2.10 GHz, 1.60 GHz, 1.20 GHz
  available cpufreq governors: conservative ondemand userspace powersave performance schedutil
  current policy: frequency should be within 1.20 GHz and 2.10 GHz.
                  The governor "schedutil" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.
  current CPU frequency: Unable to call hardware
  current CPU frequency: 1.20 GHz (asserted by call to kernel)
  boost state support:
    Supported: yes
    Active: yes

yataro wrote:

I can suggest you to use powertop to check the interrupts.

I'm sorry, I'll have to check that some other time, todays slowness has gone, it was there for like 10-12mins

Last edited by AnkushRoy (2024-06-05 06:07:48)

seth · 2024-06-05 06:42:59

So looks CPU limited.

current policy: frequency should be within 1.20 GHz and 2.10 GHz.
current CPU frequency: Unable to call hardware
current CPU frequency: 1.20 GHz (asserted by call to kernel)

Is this while running bc? Does it ever step up while the system is slow?
Is the behavior different in the fast running condition?

AnkushRoy · 2024-06-21 13:28:50

Hello, over the past two weeks, I haven't encountered any slowdowns. I suspected Firefox might be the cause, but I wasn't certain until today. After a long time, I opened Firefox again, and everything was fine until I opened another application or executed a command in a previously opened terminal. This confirmed my suspicion that Firefox is the source of the problem.

To avoid these slowdowns, I have switched to using Falkon until the Firefox issue is resolved. I plan to seek further assistance on the Firefox forums. I apologize to Seth my previous inquiries seemed difficult to track and may have caused inconvenience and time waste. Despite the slowdowns, my CPU and RAM usage remain normal; the issue only occurs when using Firefox and sometimes persists even after a reboot.

Thank you for your assistance.

Arch Linux

#1 2024-05-30 18:43:09

[SOLVED] Experiencing performance issues

#2 2024-05-30 21:43:15

Re: [SOLVED] Experiencing performance issues

#3 2024-05-31 05:36:37

Re: [SOLVED] Experiencing performance issues

#4 2024-06-01 05:23:39

Re: [SOLVED] Experiencing performance issues

#5 2024-06-01 06:20:46

Re: [SOLVED] Experiencing performance issues

#6 2024-06-01 10:16:04

Re: [SOLVED] Experiencing performance issues

#7 2024-06-01 11:50:36

Re: [SOLVED] Experiencing performance issues

#8 2024-06-01 19:08:36

Re: [SOLVED] Experiencing performance issues

#9 2024-06-05 05:50:29

Re: [SOLVED] Experiencing performance issues

#10 2024-06-05 06:42:59

Re: [SOLVED] Experiencing performance issues

#11 2024-06-21 13:28:50

Re: [SOLVED] Experiencing performance issues

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